2009-06-15 Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

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has two children. She said she is from South America and her her husband is from Africa and they did not know how to buy a house. Ms. Gomez-Alborello stated that her neighbor said that four years ago MSD wanted to buy the house, as there is nothing they can do for it. She would like the City to include her house in the buy-out plan. 13. Nazaree Burns, 1150 Wilson Ms. Burns thanked Council for approving the budget and Wilson Ave buy-out. She was concerned over a newspaper article quoting the City Manager Ms. Feier quoted in an article entitled “UCity Homeowner’s Remain in Flood Limbo” She said the article stated that because the City has no documented damage and making environmental assessments before receiving Federal money, it could take a year for buy-out money to reach home owners. Feier said, that those who qualify will get paid the value of their homes before the flooding occurred, but it doesn’t include the cost of furnaces, water heaters, dryers, washers and dryers that many had to replace to make their homes livable again. She is hoping this will not take a year. M. COUNCIL COMMENTS Ms. Ricci stated that the Mayor’s retirement party is in the budget for $5,000 and did not know anything of the $500 and would like to get to the bottom of it. In follow-up to Ms. Jensen, she asked what is going to happen if the tax initiative does not pass as this budget is predicated on its passage. It is currently not on the ballot, not voted on, not passed and currently not generating the $480,000 that Council is counting on to balance the budget. She is turning to the City Manager and the rest of Council for an answer for what happens if the tax initiative does not pass and what if it does not generate the $480,000 projection. Ms. O’Daniels asked for a periodic report as to what is going on with the time line and she feels it is a good idea and asked the City Manager to see this happens. Ms. Ricci asked where the City is in setting up the agenda on website as to where residents can sign up for it to be sent to them electronically. She offered for anyone to look at her computer at the still photos and video of today’s flooding and thanked the Fire Chief for being so responsive. Mr. Price stated that Wilson is phase one and there are other phases that have to be gone through. He stated the issue for him is how we can expedite the application phase for Wilson. Mr. Price said he is thinking ahead and not coming to the meetings with something negative. As he previously stated he has instructed the City Manager to get our Federal and State officials involved as this is bigger than just U.City. In the broader context of getting those people involved it also includes those other affected flash points. He stated you have to very careful of people coming up here and making statements that could be to your detriment. Secondly he stated that he supports the sales tax. He says he represents the third Ward with Mr. Sharpe, which has a higher propensity for calls for housing code violations and calls for the police. People coming up to talk don’t live there and when they talk about slashing, they talk about the people who support the ward he lives in. Mr. Price said the sales tax is to maintain the quality of life for a lot of individuals in this town. Mr. Price said that he and Mr. Sharpe will let the people know what is going on with the sales tax. They can then make an intelligent decision as to what they want to do. His commitment is to move due haste to fix the problem on Wilson and move to the next until you can come to a conclusion. If the tax doesn’t pass, the city will drastically deteriorate. Mr. Price stated he looked at where these people come